disembarkation question for mariner in galveston

[JimAOk1945]

We were on the Mariner last December for a Christmas cruise. Luca was the concierge then. We are platinum and we were in a full suite so we enjoyed a full breakfast, along with other suite guests, in Chops.

 

At a certain time, Luca escorted our group down to the gangway and after our group got into the terminal, he directed those who wanted porters into the correct line.

 

I would estimate from the time we left chops until we got into our car was about 45 minutes.

[BonTexasNY]

Just curious if the Carnival Magic has the same problem? Same debark port.

[whitestar11]

We were on Mariner Feb. 24th on the Honduras, Belize, Cozumel route and have done that route many times. Every time doing this route disembarkation is a long, slow and arduous journey. The Honduras route disembarkation in notorious for being a long process – take a “chill pill” and know what you’re facing. We sailed in a suite so we met in Chops for breakfast and at 8:45am Luca the concierge escorted us off the ship. Problem was all the self-embarkation passengers were clogging the gangway. We were finally in the car driving away around 11am. Others we traveled with that were not in a suite did the standard disembarkation process. They left the ship after Noon.

Other lesson for Galveston is if you’re embarking after the Honduras route, don’t plan to board early. You’ll only be standing in long lines waiting to start the delayed embarkation process in the terminal.

[kwbrad]

We also got off on March 17th and as others have talked about it was a mess. If you do not do self assist, be sure to get a porter. The reps directing people tried to talk us out of it but we got in line anyway, we were through customs before the people that had been in front of us even made it 1/5 of the way through the line for those without porters. In Galveston it is the only way to get out of there. We were allowed off the ship at 1035, and it took an hour to get bags and get through customs with the porter. People not getting a porter were taking 2 plus hours

[CENTEX CRUISER]

We were in our car by 8:30 on our last Magic cruise..

Just curious if the Carnival Magic has the same problem? Same debark port.

[knittinggirl]

Galveston is the worst port we 've sailed out of. Sorry. Two times we were real really late, after noon, the others we were on the road by 10:30 or 11:00. Once we embarked around 5:00, but that was due to our friend fog. Just two delays because of fog.

 

Sent from my KFJWA using Tapatalk HD

[knittinggirl]

We consider Galveston our worst embarkation port. Two delays after noon & two really late departures due to fog. Schedule late flights. Two hour drive to IAH. All that said, we're booked on navigator next year.

 

Sent from my KFJWA using Tapatalk HD

[knittinggirl]

Sorry about the duplicate post. Delay in appear in.

 

Sent from my KFJWA using Tapatalk HD

[CENTEX CRUISER]

Foggy in Galveston now.

We consider Galveston our worst embarkation port. Two delays after noon & two really late departures due to fog. Schedule late flights. Two hour drive to IAH. All that said, we're booked on navigator next year.

 

Sent from my KFJWA using Tapatalk HD

[TEXASMUNK]

Usually arrive around eleven. Will get there around 2 not gonna fight the trend

[djh]

Looks like it will be a crap shoot whether it is slow or fast..

 

I totally agree with that! We were on the 2/17/13 Mariner cruise and it was extremely slow to board. We had gotten emails the Friday before our cruise from RCL asking us to come to the port later than usual due to anticipated slow disembarkation. The staff at check in said that is was due to the ship stopping at Roatan. We were some of the first to board and it was about 12:30.

When getting off the ship on the 24th, we didn't rush, had an 8:30 am departure time but didn't actually walk off the ship until about 9:20. No line, easy to find luggage, and a wait of no longer than 2 minutes at customs. I must say though that this was an unusual experience for us in Galveston. We usually use the porters because they get through so much quicker, but when we saw there were no lines, we just skipped the porters and pulled the luggage ourselves. Good luck!

[geoff2802]

Lots of helpful information here. ;)

We are Australians, sailing on the Navigator departing in June. Does anyone have observations they could share about the Non-US immigration/customs line for disembarkation? Is it generally longer than the US citizen's line? If we self assist, is 10am a realistic time for a pre-booked shuttle to pick us up?

[bighairtexan]

CENTEX I was on the cruise w/ you on the Mariner. We had a debarkation of around 9 and we didn't even get off the ship until almost 11 and it took FOREVER to get out of the terminal. So you were VERY lucky to get out and in your car in such short order. It was the single worst debarkation ever. And Galveston is always worse than FLL or Miami or Los Angeles. But this was beyond bad. It definitely wasn't as bad in Galveston on Carnival ships, but that was a couple of years ago so I don't know if that's changed.